"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
-Albert Einstein
I think it's just human nature to have to complicate things. But when you're in the clinic, that is no time to be an academic or philosopher.
I've always harped on clinical results. Working in the clinic is working in the trenches so to speak. This is where the rubber meets the road. Any flowery ideas of acupuncture or Chinese medicine, all the lovely beautiful concepts and theories, they mean nothing. Results are the only thing that matters - and the treatments behind them. While many think this disparages the "art", what it actually is, is putting the patient first. I will never apologize for putting the patient above ideology that doesn't deliver results, and only serves to comfort one's ego.
I've seen so many peeps brag about what they can do. What they know, how they can "control qi", or the degrees they have. Something is always missing in this bragging though - the patient.
Learning is fun, philosophy is extremely interesting, exploring new idea is important. But in the clinic it's all about keeping it simple.
Likewise, how are you explaining things to your patients? Are you lecturing on the differences between acupuncture and dry needling? Are you over explaining how your treatments are helping them? Have you noticed they glaze over after about 30 seconds?
It's best to keep working on your scripts and saying things very direct. Give the patients what they need - results. We excel in the clinic, delivering the tools we've learned. If we're talking, we're not working (unless you can do both at the same time).
And please, keep it simple!
Assessment & Treatment of 12 Peripheral Nerve Entrapments Using Electroacupuncture
This question came up at the December EXSTORE seminar. When does Anthony use the Pointer versus the ITO? (Or other longer-use estim device)
In this webinar Anthony goes over assessment and understanding of the major scoliotic curves. This includes how to base rehab prescriptions and how to select acupuncture treatment protocols for major scoliotic curves. We also review scoliotic curves on Xray and review what muscles are affected and the structural implications.
Here is the list of webinars in the library.
This does not include the recorded labs or the other webinars annual members get.
Patient: F 38 y.o
CC: Inability to evacuate bladder.
Hx:
- life-long hx of UTIs
- 2021 L side sciatica w/ drop foot ( L4/L5 disc bulge)
- Oct 2024: Laminectomy: partial disc is still in tact; cut out portion of bulging disc & grinded down some bone
Testing has shown she still has 1/3 of urine in bladder even when she feels she has emptied. Worse since sciatica and the surgery. She still has numbness in her L lower leg since the sciatica episode that I tried to treat but it wasn’t successful as I didn’t see her enough and/or its been too long/4 years since the initial episode so too late for nerve healing maybe. Last week, she has been told she needs a catheter to empty her bladder and she is wondering if I can help her prevent this. She says her body feels like she is done emptying, but testing shows she still has urine present. She is quite active, rides a motorbike/ goes to the gym. Has a history of trauma and has been historically quite sensitive to the needles.
Thoughts!? @Exstoreman
Hi! @Exstoreman I watched and took notes on the 12 Peripheral Nerve entrapments, and I have many questions. I couldn't find clarifications on these upon searching, but let me know if I missed them anywhere.
First, I am confused on how to know if I start with exstore, or work on nerve entrapment? Do I only know if it’s nerve entrapment by western med tests or muscle atrophy below the compression? Is this what the motor tests are for? How do I know if I need to work on peripheral entrapment vs cutaneous entrapment, nerve root compression, or others like thoracic outlet, chemo neuropathy, B6 neuropathy, burning in low back, etc? Is all numbness/tingling one thing, vs muscle atrophy, or other?
Next..
How do we connect the information from these tests that you provided, as they don’t have direct correlation? For instance, you list the individual nerves, and the individual vertebrae level tests, but those don’t have direct correlation and do have overlap. How do we use info gathered from ie nerve innervation...
